A marketing funnel describes the customer journey from those who do not know you yet to those who want to become your followers, customers, and brand advocates. Marketing funnels are divided into three main stages that make up a complete funnel. You have the top of the funnel, or TOFU, the middle of the funnel, or MOFU, and the bottom of the funnel, BOFU. Oftentimes, the marketing funnel diagram is represented by an image of a plastic funnel. This comparison is somewhat misleading, however, as a cooking funnel ensures that everything you put in at the top comes out at the bottom without any spillages. A marketing funnel, however, is slightly different in that not everyone at the top of the funnel will make it to the bottom of the funnel. And those that do might make it at a different timeframe. As you can see in this funnel example, only 20 out of the 100 people have made it to the end of the funnel. It took over six months for the first 10 of those people to get there, and 10 of them got there in 24 hours. As a content creator, your task is to do what you can to ensure as many people as possible make it to the next stage of your marketing funnel. The closer to the bottom of the funnel they get, the more invested they are as followers and customers, and the more lucrative your relationship is with them. You should be nurturing your prospects at each different stage of the funnel and be patient with them. You never know what piece of content, what email, or what new product or service will make them take the next step in your funnel.
